1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a viscous material feeder and a viscous material printer, and more particularly, it relates to a viscous material feeder including a nozzle to discharge a viscous material and a viscous material printer including such a viscous material feeder.
2. Description of the Background Art
A viscous material feeder including a nozzle to discharge a viscous material and a viscous material printer including such a viscous material feeder are known in general. Such a viscous material feeder is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2010-179628, for example.
Japanese Patent Laying-open no. 2010-179628 discloses a solder printer including a solder feeder feeding solder (viscous material) onto a surface of a mask and a squeegee scraping off the solder fed onto the surface of the mask. The solder feeder of this solder printer includes a container storing the solder, a discharge adapter attached to an opening of the container, a feed mechanism to feed the solder from the container, a guide block formed with a solder flow path, and a feed port discharging the solder at a tip of the guide block. The solder flow path of the guide block is formed to extend obliquely, and the solder flow path in the feed port at the tip of the guide block is formed to extend vertically. Thus, the solder feeder according to Japanese Patent Laying-open no. 2010-179628 has a bent feed route to feed the solder by the guide block and the feed port.
In the solder feeder, the solder, which is a viscous material, is likely to remain in the feed route and hardens with time, and hence it is necessary to clean the feed route during maintenance. However, the solder feeder according to Japanese Patent Laying-open no. 2010-179628 has the bent feed route, so that a bar-shaped cleaning tool hardly passes through a bent portion of the feed route when the bar-shaped cleaning tool is inserted into the feed route for cleaning, for example. Furthermore, in the case of the bent feed route, the interior portion (portion farther than the bent portion) of the feed route cannot be checked from outside, and hence the cleaning state of the feed route (whether or not the solder remains in the feed route) cannot be checked. Therefore, there is room for improvement in the solder feeder according to Japanese Patent Laying-open no. 2010-179628 in terms of inhibiting the solder (viscous material) from remaining in the feed route during maintenance of the printer and cleaning workability during maintenance of the printer.